News

Rip Current Experience Survey

Posted by Matt Warren on Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Have you ever been caught in a rip? This is one of the questions
being asked in a new online survey about rip currents that aims to
improve rip education and awareness and, in turn, save more Kiwi
lives on the beach.

Every year beachgoers get into difficulty when they're caught in
a rip. They have long been a hazard on New Zealand's beaches; they
are estimated to account for approximately half of the 22 lives
lost each year on the coastline and they are a key factor in over
52 percent of all rescues performed by Surf Lifeguards, amounting
to on average 800 lives each year. However, these figures likely
understate the scale of this problem with countless other rescues
by members of the public going unreported.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand has developed The New Zealand Rip
Current Experience Survey in collaboration with the University of
New South Wales and Surf Life Saving Australia, following an
extensive campaign in Australia which queried the general public on
their knowledge and experiences of rip currents. Participants were
asked to identify rip currents in beach photographs, detail how
they would escape a rip and recount any rip current messages they
may have heard.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand Aquatic Risk Manager Nick Mulcahy
says the idea of the survey is to gauge what the general public
knows about rips, understand how they would respond if caught in
one and assess how successful previous rip awareness campaigns have
been. "The real value is in getting people to access the survey
online and then using their responses to help shape rip campaigns
in the future," he says.

Mr Mulcahy says educating the public about rip currents is vital
to ensure that beachgoers can properly identify rip currents and
know what to do when caught in one. "Education is a top priority
for Surf Life Saving in our continuous effort to reduce the number
of rip related drownings. Every summer we see thousands of
beachgoers getting into trouble because they can't properly
identify a rip current. We want to make sure everyone knows what a
rip is so they can avoid them in the first place," he says.

University of New South Wales surf scientist Dr Rob Brander says
rips have been studied for a long time but no one has ever asked
those caught in rips about their experiences and how they think we
may better educate and inform the general public. "This survey
finally asks these questions and we hope to learn a lot from these
people," he says.